This past weekend, an EY Chicago colleague, Jacob Cooper, and his wife Annette visited the old Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. Jacob is doing the exact same Global Exchange Program that I am doing, only he is stationed in Amsterdam.
They arrived on Friday afternoon and toured around the main part of Luxembourg Centre while I finished up with work. It took me a little longer than I expected to finish up. This was due to a variety of reasons, but probably most prevalent of those was that we had our "end of busy season" (even though it's not really over) party on Thursday night, and I'll be damned if the bartenders didn't over serve me. Will they never learn??
Anyways, I met up with Jacob and Annette, showed them the palace, and then we headed downtown to grab some dinner. We ate at a place that was recommended to me by several people, but turned out to be not that good. Strike One!
After dinner, we headed up to another restaurant to meet with my friends Robert and Brendan. First, it was Brendan's last night in Luxembourg before heading back to Ireland to finish his master's program and start work with EY Dublin (he'd been interning with EY Luxembourg), so I wanted to see him and say goodbye. Second, Robert's mother and grandmother were in town. Let's just say that Robbie's grandmother had the same bartenders that were serving me the night before...and she was hilarious! Apparently I look very Irish and Jacob looks very....she didn't know what, but very something.
Anyways, so we headed back home to rest up because on Saturday we were going to Echternach, a city in the northeast part of Luxembourg. Echternach is in "De Mellerdall," an area of Luxembourg know as "Little Switzerland," and there is a lake there that was supposed to be nice.
We arrived around 11am, and the place actually was very pretty. It reminded me a lot of Whitewater (Hamiltonians will know what I mean). The only problem, le temp c'est troup froid (it was too cold), and there was no one around (save for some killer geese that gave me a scare...check out the pics via the link above and you'll see what I mean).
So, this lake was my big plan for the day....Steeerike Two! What else could we do? Well, we walked around the city centre of Echternach, which was lovely, for a little while. Then we decided we'd drive out to Trier, Germany for the rest of the afternoon. That turned out to be a good time....there was some sort of wine and gourmet festival (at least that's what the sign said...I didn't see any wine or any gourmet food anywhere) going on. So people were out and having a good time, there was music in the air, etc, and it was a nice atmosphere.
After Trier, we drove back to Luxembourg and went to the sports fields a little ways away from my apartment to throw the football around and kick the soccer ball around. We were basically taking advantage of the last bits of sunlight of the day.
Once we had enough of the sports, we went back to my apartment to cook up a dinner of fajitas, chips, salsa and guacamole. It turned out really good. Maybe too good, since shortly after I finished eating I fell asleep on the floor watching TV. I'm pretty sure I was snoring, too, because I think I woke myself up once.
Sunday morning we all woke up around the same time and I cooked some eggs for breakfast. There was the potential of us going to this South African festival that was happening down in the city, but it was raining so Jacob and Annette just headed back to Amsterdam...Strike Three!
1. They have infinitely outdone me when it comes to travelling so far. They've been everywhere, and most big places (i.e., Paris) multiple times!
2. They have had some random, wierd and frustrating stuff happen to them too. Which makes me feel better....it's not just me! You can actually read about all their travels and experiences at their blog.
Random thoughts/things as of today:
- You might recall from earlier blogs that my apartment borders a big wide open area of fields and farm. It's really pretty and I love it. However, there are these cows out there that...well, let's just say that it kind of sounds like a T-Rex is hanging around outside my back deck....not so much a "moo" as an angry grunt/growl. I'll see if I can't remember to snap some pictures of them to post on future blogs.
- One week until the Ag-nes Monster gets here.
- Upcoming trips include Barcelona in June, and the "tour of Ireland" - Neanaugh, Galway, Aran Islands, and Dublin - in July. Barcelona is just me and Agnes, while the Ireland trip is me, Agnes, my buddy Robert (Irish guy) and his girlfriend Laura (Irish gal).
- I didn't realize this, but Amsterdam is only a 4 hour drive from Luxembourg. Who knew?
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